you’ve probably always tracked the legalities of Bitcoin as certain countries have declared it illegal, while others have taken steps to integrate it into society. Well you may be surprised to find out, the first country striving for full blockchain technology integration has actually been recently announced as the country of Nigeria.
The History of Nigeria and Blockchain
Unlike a number of other African countries, Nigeria has never fully been opposed to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Rather, they were slow adopters at first, but since the year 2019 (and especially since the COVID-19 pandemic) they have been in a rush to catch up with China to benefit as much as they can from the implications of this new technology. Africa has always been plagued by infrastructure issues and population distrust in banks, so it should be no surprise that this society was quick to accept the idea of a decentralized technology. In the early days, Nigeria was mostly using blockchain technology to run their nation's lotteries or for gambling/gaming purposes. But now, their leader, Mr. Kashifu Inuwa is looking to change that, and in the process, making Nigeria one of the stronger financial powers of the world.
How Will Nigeria Use Blockchain?
In an interview with Vanguard on November 5th, 2020, Mr. Inuwa listed nearly a hundred ways the Nigerian society would be using blockchain. Their plans for the technology are massive, but mostly inspired by the recent global pandemic. Thus, they are looking to implicate blockchain technology in the areas of payment processing, the transportation of goods, and identity protection services. While this all sounds amazing, Inuwa recognizes that his people are far from the technology behemoth known as China, but he hopes by innovating quickly they will be able to capture much of the unrecognized value found in blockchain technology in Africa.
Interestingly enough, Nigeria is well positioned on the continent of Africa to overtake much of the continent's digital trade routes. Nigeria conveniently houses the FinTech center in Africa and already processes much of the digital payment processing which occurs on the continent. That and the fact that there isn’t much competition from nearby countries means Inuwa